Napa Valley

Lille!
Originally uploaded by mercoop.

I drove down to California's Wine Country this weekend. It took 2 1/2 hours, but the drive was easy. And I got to hang out with Lille! So much wine-o-licious fun!

Our first destination: dinner. We were reading the menu. Lille suggested pizza. I thought, wha! How can you order pizza when there's wild boar on the menu!? So we both ended up with the wild boar. SO delicious. We practically licked our plates clean.

Next destination: a bar. Any bar. The only bar. In Yountville, where her hotel was. Ha. It's actually a smoking bar. In California. How weird is that?? But they had pool tables and cheap beer. What more can you ask for?

I visited a couple of wineries the next morning. Too bad I couldn't stay the night ... but alas I had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of me and couldn't have TOO much fun. But it was cool. I'd never been wine tasting before. The vineyards just go on and on and on and on.

That's my adventure for the week! :)

The dreaded transitional phase

You'd think that after traveling all over the world by myself, going to new cities every few days and having to make new friends everywhere I went that starting a job in a new city would be no big deal. You'd be wrong. Visiting a place and living in a place are two completely different things. For one, if I went out by myself in Bangkok or Krakow or Dublin and I didn't meet anyone cool, it was no big deal. I didn't have to worry about looking like a loser because there was virtually no likelihood that I'd ever see any of those people again. But living someplace is entirely different. When you go out you worry you might see someone you know (one of those 10 people you've come into contact with so far) and they'll no longer think you're cool because you're out by yourself. Grr.

I know it's just the weird transitional phase. I've done it before, I can do it again. I'll make friends and it'll be no big deal a month from now (knock on wood!). But man it sucks for a while ...

My new digs

Well, I made it to Chico. In one piece, but not exactly the way I had planned. True to my luck, I got into a little fender bender (OK, it was more than that -- but no one was hurt) ... the day before I was supposed to make the 2,000-mile drive from St. Louie to Chico. Sweet!

So I repacked in a manner that would comply with airline regulations. Actually, both of my checked bags weighed in at 49 pounds -- one pound below the max! Phew! And I flew to San Fran, rented a car and drove the final leg, through mostly farmland, to my new home. I was nicely welcomed by my three new roommies I'm sharing a cool house with, who set me up with a lot more than I had anticipated. They even gave me a TV for my room! And one of them helped me lug a big 'ole futon from the neighborhood Wal-Mart back home (even though I think he dislocated a toenail dragging it into my room -- sorry!).

So, I've been here about three days. Haven't really gotten my bearings yet, but working on it. Today was my first day at work. My first day back in the "real world." And I have a feeling that although my newest adventure didn't start the way I'd planned, it's gonna work out just fine.